Blogging · Me myself and I · Opinion · Thoughts

Don’t fix it if it’s not broken!

Cyranny

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I sure didn’t think I would have to get the (cute) seal of disapproval out again so fast, but it just seems like it is necessary. WordPress is on a crusade to fix something that definately isn’t broken… I know this post probably won’t change anything, but at least I’ll know that I tried my best.

For the past week, or so, people have started complaining that WordPress has switched them to the new block editor.

We had an announcement from WordPress earlier this year (I wrote about it in my post Blocking the Block). In May, we were told that the block editor would be put in place as the new ”standard” editor, but that people that wanted to keep using the classic editor would still have that choice.

And we did, until this week.

Just three months later, posts have started popping out, stating that many of us are slowing down their blogging habits, stopping for a while, until they get used to the new editor, or simply switching blogging plateforms or closing their blog for good.

And that makes me both sad and angry.

We’re talking about people that have been blogging for years… Prolific bloggers that just won’t put up with these changes that are being imposed. And unfortunately, I understand them, and I can’t blame them the least bit.

As I already mentionned, I am glad for those of you who like the block editor. I have no doubt that the switch must be quite easy for some people, and the new editor probably offers new features that will benefit them.

But some of us don’t have time, don’t have the skills, or simply don’t want to have to learn how to do things differently. If WordPress wants to make new bloggers use the block editor, fine. But why push away loyal customers that have been here for years??

Here is a list of post, from bloggers who strongly dislike the change, will blog less, or not blog anymore on WordPress, because of the block editor…

 

Trina

Calm Kate

Biff Sock Pow

Fandango

Suze

Dale

Melanie B Cee

Pensitivity101

 

And I suspect that many other bloggers have expressed their disagreement. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to spend going through my Reader during the week, so I probably missed some of these posts.

If you, or some of the bloggers you follow have written about wanting WordPress to keep the classic editor as an option, please leave the link to your (their) post in the comments, please.

I’ll add each link to the list, and I hope it will get longer and longer.

I might be naive, but I still believe that together, we have a voice!

 

P.S. Feel free to share or reblog this post. The bigger the wave, the most chances we have that someone, somewhere, at the head of WordPress will give all of this a second thought.

77 thoughts on “Don’t fix it if it’s not broken!”

  1. good luck sweetie. I will be leaving. I have revived my old blog on blogger so the transition won’t be difficult. I am sad to leave WP but I can not make my brain comprehend the block editor..some things just do not compute after age 65…..

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    1. Suze, you can’t imagine how sad it makes me to see you leave WP… Even if I fully understand why you do so.

      You were there when I took my first steps as a blogger, and not having you around anymore is just… beyond me.

      I am just terribly sad to see you going, and I’ll keep protesting everytime I see a blog closing down for such a stupid reason. I can’t believe WP people are so insensitive…

      I’ll stop by Blogger to see you! Take good care, you’ll be greatly missed here.

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  2. Thanks for speaking out so vocally Cyranny but from my interaction with WP is that they are really not interested in what actual bloggers want or think!

    Altho I pay $90 a year to have ads removed most blog for free. The way WP can do this is that they have volunteer geeks who ‘discover’ these wondrous new and better ways to do things. They then have no interest in maintaining the old systems … and I should highlight that they don’t actually blog!

    Lockdown time has provided them with plenty of time to explore and Im guessing even more changes are underway. But there have been various WP gremlins to deal with along the way – when they stopped daily prompts, likes don’t work, comments missing, slow to load, etc – and for me this does feel like the last straw that broke the camels back.

    I am giving myself a month of less posting until my fees are due again before making a definite decision. Meanwhile I have found a very quick and easy way to open a new blog and post on blogspot … much easier than WP ever was. But they don’t have a reader, a way to meet community …

    So I would definitely miss the community here but with the fun factor greatly diminished … I’m not a published author or thinking of publishing so there is no self-promotional factor to motivate me! It’s purely social fun, so if it stops bringing me joy … then I definitely have other things to do with my life 🙂

    Thanks sweetness ❤

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    1. Dear Kate… I do agree that raising my fist in the air will most likely have no effect on the current changes, but I just have to do it anyway.

      I can’t watch blogs going down, and not say a thing. It is so absurd.

      I’ve been stuck in our apartment for 5 months now, and blogging is probably one of the reasons I kept some sort of sanity, so far… But I must say, seeing how things are going, I am starting to think about pulling the plug too.

      I can’t imagine losing my precious little cove, but giving money to people who don’t give a damn about what we think doesn’t please me either… I guess we’ll see as time goes by.

      All the best to you, dear friend! *Big hugs*

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    1. You’re welcome! All of this is having a lot of repercussions on my blogging circle, and it is making me think about my future as a blogger… I hope that if we speak up, WP will at least listen to their bloggers before making such major changes… Thank you for letting your thoughts known!

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  5. I will be sad to see people go over this if it comes down to that. I was upset Tuesday when the change for forced upon me but I have since found the classic block part of the optional blocks in block editor is basically the same thing. I am slowly getting back up to speed.

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    1. I’m glad the classic block editor works for you! I know that some bloggers have trouble with it, though, depending if they are blogging from a computer, a tablet or a phone…

      I’ve already seen two bloggers I’ve followed for years, close their blog this week. It is really really sad. And although some people are turning to different other blogging platforms, it will be impossible to keep up with all of them, on seperate sites… Really really sad situation.

      I hope you’ll be back to business as usual in no time 😉

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      1. I think business as usual is close. Thanks Cyranny! That is very sad to see two bloggers go. Maybe WP will get a clue before it is too late. Sounds like the end of an era. This classic block part of block editor is definitely easier on a desktop. I tried on my phone and decided nope not for me.

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    1. Thank you for sharing 🙂 I am sure your post will be helpful for many who are hoping to keep things as similar to the good old classic editor as possible.

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  7. It’s such a shame to see how upset you all are. Honestly, it not hard too hard to use. I started using it by accident last year and yes like anything it hard at first but it quickly became second nature. There is lots of help out there. Hugh at
    https://wp.me/p4lhej-azt
    Has written many helpful tutorials on the new block editor. Don’t leave yet, honest if I can use it anyone can 💜

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    1. Thank you for sharing the link, I’m sure it will help many bloggers having trouble with the block editor…

      My point though is not about how hard or easy it is to learn to work with it. I think it is just not fair to force the change when many of us made it clear, back in May, that we didn’t want the change.

      I’ll just talk for myself, but I think the timing also sucks. Maybe in the pre-covid times, I would have welcomed these changes more easily. But the last past months, pretty much everything in my life has changed drastically, and I have had to learn my fair share of new stuff and new ways to do this and that. My blog was (and still is, for now) a safe, comfortable, and unchanged place I can run to.

      Back in May, I thought that the bloggers that said they would stop blogging with WP would hopefully change their minds. But noticing two of them actually leaving this week, it seems like I am not the only one thinking we should still have the choice to switch or not.

      I’m not saying I’ll never be interested in the block editor, but for now, it’s a big ”no” for me.

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      1. The timing is a shame, possibly they could of delayed the change, but these things get decided a long time in advance and when it was first mentioned last year it seemed an age away and no horrid pandemic on the horizon. Sadly these big companies change for their convenience not ours, the customer.
        That said I agree with everything you say and I hope not too many leave. I,like you, you find my blog my only safe place and I could not bare to start again somewhere else. I also would hate to lose any of the wonderful people I have met here. Be well and safe. 💜

        Liked by 1 person

      2. You are absolutely right about changes being planned long before they get put in place… It is just unfortunate that the timing is that bad.

        I guess I’ll blame Murphy for this one too 😉

        Thank you for sharing your thoughts… And be well and safe too 🙂 xx

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      4. I have heard about the classic block editor, but some people say that it is glitchy depending on what they use to blog (cell phone, tablet or computer)… I haven’t been switched yet (knocking on wood) but I’ll sure have a look at this alternative if it happens. 🙂

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  8. I think you might have to add my name to that list. Certainly the weekend share is going to get shut down, unless I get use to it pretty damn quickly.

    It takes an age to load up and when you are trying to get anywhere between 20-48 posts out in two days those extra seconds feel like hours, Added to this Press This doesn’t actually transfer the link over, so I am having to do it manually and if I have to do that, there is very little point

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  9. You would think that WP would see themselves as a “service” industry. But apparently not! I have no problems with the new editor and have been using it for several months. But it is upsetting to know that others are having problems and their concerns have not been addressed! That’s not right!

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    1. I totally agree. We’re all customers, one way on another, since some of us have ads on their blogs, and the others sign a check yearly. Yet, what we think doesn’t seem to interest the WP people… That’s really disappointing, to say the least.

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  11. This smacks of some upper managers attempt to exercise control over product development just to pad his resume’ and have one more “lookie what I did” on his performance review. There was/is absolutely NO reason to change the editor! I have yet to see what has been added that makes it so “gee whiz” that everyone is slobbering all over themselves to use it.

    If Word Press wants to do something constructive, make upgrades to the old editor. Add don’t tell me the code is too old and all of that crap. You can modernize the code, keeping the same good features and add functions that allow us to control what we want. For example: give is a way to change text color directly; font size directly without having to use HEADINGS or in addition to HEADINGS. Also make it so user edits to font, text, color, etc. can be set as defaults.

    From what I’ve seen on the block editor it doesn’t look like what I change carries from one block to the next? Or is it just me not knowing where all of the so called benefits are and how to use them?: I will grant you the last point is probably user ignorance of where to find those options.

    The code is not intuitive from the perspective that options just don’t “jump out at you” and scream “Here I am!” I hate spending time having to go thru a bunch of options not knowing what they will do once I find them.

    Keep the managers out of the development process. Listen to your users and be smart enough to make changes according to you user communities wishes. That manager is only using this as a resume stop – we are here for the long haul unless you piss us off. Right now my fly is open!

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    1. I agree with you, Larry… improving the classic version probably would have provoked less of a big fuss…

      One would think that companies would care about their customers’ needs and wills. But I guess I’m still wearing pink goggles 😉 You are probably right about management putting its nose in development business… And that’s too bad.

      Let’s just hope our voice will be heard even if it doesn’t change a thing. And let’s hope we don’t lose too many players along the way…

      Do you think you’ll join us for Skypy Sunday later today? 🙂

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  12. How unfortunate this is for most of us. Why take away the choice? It’s like taken all pens away from a writer and leaving a faulty one, that writes sometimes and not at others.

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      2. Have you been forced to switch, yet? If so, here’s a comment Pendantry wrote below… I think it is worth trying!!

        ”WordPress forced me onto the block editor a couple of days ago. I got in touch with a Happiness Engineer (via https://wordpress.com/help/contact) and was told that the classic editor is now ‘deprecated’. But: they’ve fixed it for me: they’ve forced my blog back to the classic editor. You can try contacting them yourself, and ask that they fix it for you, too — quote reference #23512102-hc.”

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Thank you Cranny. I blog from my iPhone WP app and in it there is an option to disable the block editor. So till they change or update the app, I am able to use the classic editor. I appreciate your kind thoughts.

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  13. There still is, and always has been, the original editor that resides in the wp-admin screens. You would think they would have named that the Classic editor, but that was the “easier way to create blog posts” that I ignored from its development. I’ve used the original editor since I started in 2012. It works in both visual mode as well as HTML mode (I’ve never spent more than a minute in visual mode). WordPress has stated that that will be around at least until 2022, and I plan on using it until they pry it from my cold dead hands.

    Working with the block editor isn’t the issue for me. What is the issue is that it seems to be incomplete. It has the capability of resizing and centering images, but so far doesn’t have the ability to resize and center other forms of media (YouTube videos, Instagram posts, tweets). They either take up the entire column or are left justified regardless of where you tell the block to put it. With HTML, I can position those elements, but even using the classic block (their panacea for those upset at the loss of the classic editor) the HTML is either ignored or throws an exception. That won’t do: any new editor has to be capable of producing the same results as the editor I’m used to. I know I’m being fussy, but I feel I have the right to be.

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    1. You absolutely have the right to be unhappy about changes that don’t fit you, John.

      Personally, I am a real dummy when it comes to editing. I am here because I love to write, and because I found a wonderful community on WP. I am sure there are many bloggers like me, who easily get lost when things change, and I hope we won’t lose too many players along the way…

      When I read comments from bloggers like you, who seem to know a lot about editing but are still not excited about the block editor, I think it means a lot. I haven’t gone through the new editor’s options, but I agree; if the new version isn’t capable to give (at least) the same result as the previous, what’s the point in changing??

      Thank you for sharing your thoughts 🙂

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  14. I saw an article today that Apple is bugging WP about changing the app and won’t allow upgrades unless they up the price to pay Apple. So maybe that has something to do with it.  I don’t sell or promote myself on WP so I don’t think it applies to me. 

    Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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  15. Thanks for including my whiney post in your list. I am still making up my mind as to whether or not to find another blog hosting platform or to just cut back significantly on my posting. But I primarily use my iPhone for blogging and the Block editor just doesn’t cut it on a small screen. And the Classic block on the Block editor is unstable. I’m so angry at WordPress’ “my way or the highway” attitude toward us bloggers.

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    1. Thank you, for standing up as always…

      This whole thing is very frustrating. After four years and I don’t even want to know how many hours spent on building this blog, I feel like I am getting to a crossroad: I either stay and keep paying a company that doesn’t seem to care about their customers, or I leave. But if I decide to close The Cove, I doubt I’ll have what it takes to start all over again. I love it here, and I love the community. This really really sucks.

      Your blog will be one I’ll greatly miss, if you decide to move to another platform… I really really really really hope you won’t have to!

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      1. Yes, this really sucks and I’m so pissed at WordPress for shoving this stupid block editor down our throats. I hate it and I’m still seriously considering ending my blog. It’s not worth the hassle.

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      2. Pendantry wrote the following comment, below:

        ”WordPress forced me onto the block editor a couple of days ago. I got in touch with a Happiness Engineer (via https://wordpress.com/help/contact) and was told that the classic editor is now ‘deprecated’. But: they’ve fixed it for me: they’ve forced my blog back to the classic editor. You can try contacting them yourself, and ask that they fix it for you, too — quote reference #23512102-hc.”

        I think it is worth trying… I’d really hate to see you go, and I know I’m not the only one!

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I just opened a support ticket with WordPress and referenced the information you received from Pendantry, including the reference number. I’m keeping my fingers crossed they will agree to do the same for my blog.

        Thanks.

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  16. I’m still in two minds about staying with WP or going back to my old stomping ground, Blogger. In the meantime when I go to the ‘write’ page, I click on the blue square with a cross on it and scroll down 5 rows to the word Classic. It’s not far off what we were used to, and it’s better than mucking around with blocks, whatever they are!

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    1. I’ve used Blogger a very long while back, and I really don’t want to go back. It was so basic, and non-aesthetic… Well probably unless I learn to use their editor. And that would mean starting from zero. Ugh…

      This is very annoying. To say the least…

      Thank you for sharing your thoughts! 🙂

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  17. Fixing things that aren’t broken is a sign of an arrogant mind.

    WordPress forced me onto the block editor a couple of days ago. I got in touch with a Happiness Engineer (via https://wordpress.com/help/contact) and was told that the classic editor is now ‘deprecated’. But: they’ve fixed it for me: they’ve forced my blog back to the classic editor. You can try contacting them yourself, and ask that they fix it for you, too — quote reference #23512102-hc.

    Good luck!

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  18. I will indeed repost. AND (happy happenstance) WordPress contacted me today with a ‘satisfaction survey’ about the emoticon issue I asked them about over a month or so ago. They never did anything about it btw, which I guess is standard operating procedure. But they’re gonna get an earful AND a link to the blog post I wrote earlier saying No thank you! Thanks Cyranny for adding your voice. I am so discouraged today, after hearing about Fandango and the lack of support for the whole i-products line (oops WordPress, I think you shat on your shoe with that one), that if he finds a new home, I might go to the site too. It really pisses me off that WordPress has opted to destroy a thriving community, ESPECIALLY right now. As if C-19 hadn’t done enough of that. It’s a true pity.

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    1. Amen Melanie… How ironic that you got this survey just when WP is turning half of the bloggosphere upside down. I can only imagine the reply they got 😉

      The timing of WP for such a change is terrible, and the community sure didn’t need this as we are still struggling with covid-19.

      We already lost too many bloggers, and reading that people like Fandango are thinking about leaving the ship is really upsetting.

      I hope that speaking up will have its effect (though I doubt it) and will help stop this exodus…

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  19. Pingback: Block Editor? No Thank You!! | sparksfromacombustiblemind

  21. I agree with your complaints, Cyranny. As I said on Renard’s site, I have a simple website and don’t need 90% of what the block platform offers. It’s like giving me a Mathmatica program when all I need is a calculator!

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    1. Oh my, Rebecca, that’s an EXCELLENT comparison, and I feel exactly the same! My blog is also very simple, and I’d like to keep it that way… Finger crossed, and in the meanwhile, I’m still going to rant, because I don’t want to see more people leave our community.

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  22. please, please please let this 17th attempt at a comment work for a flippin change!!! I wrote a ticket to the so called happiness engineer about my editor and used the reference number from a blogger (i no longer remember her name but thank goodness she wrote a comment!). we shall see what happens. I really hate the idea of shutting down after so many years here, and blogspot, while an easy to use site is nice there is NO COMMUNITY there. Want to speak to another blogger? go to a search engine and look up bloggers..and hope they are till active somewhere……..arggggggggggggg. so we shall see. Hopefully no one shuts down their blog before attempting a ‘fix”. I was ready, and scheduled a shut down for tomorrow……so Cyranny, your email was MOST appreciated. You are now officially my Dudley Dooright…..

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  23. Pingback: *Press This* Don’t fix it if it’s not broken! #148 | Its good to be crazy Sometimes

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